Horse Pens 40 - Crag Beta

Too wet to climb but pretty to look at.

Location:

Horse Pens 40 is located on a private land near Steele Alabama. When you are traveling on highway 59 you will see signs for Horse Pens 40 and once you get off the highway there should be big signs that point you towards HP40. These signs maybe hard to see at night.

View Larger Map

Access:

The climbing area is only accessible by paying a $5 day use fee. The problems are highly concentrated and the approach is very easy. If it's not too cold you should not have problem navigating the terrain with flip flops.

  

Guide Books:

The guide book you want is the same book as I mentioned for Moss Rock Preserve. The new guide book for HP40, Moss Rock Preserve and Palisades Park is published by Greener Grass Publishing [link] The book should cost $24.95 and is available online from the publisher and locally from the First Ave Rocks Gym in Birmingham [link] or local Mountain High Outfitters. I have been told that the book will most likely be available for purchase at the general store in HP40 in the near future. This book has many maps and color photos to help you locate the problems.

The book was not available for purchase while I was at HP40 so I used the Dr. Topo guide. The Dr. Topo guide is fairly comprehensive and should help you find almost all of the more famous climbs. I would still recommend you purchase the Greener Grass guide book but if you are on a very tight budget the Dr. Topo guide should be more then good enough to get you going. If you need help locating the Dr. Topo guide please send me an e-mail and I'll try to help you find it.

Where To Stay:

If you look carefully you can see my tent.

HP40 has a campground where you can camp almost right at the rocks. The camping cost $10 but that includes the $5 daily climbing pass. The campground has a small general store, shower stalls, bathrooms with running waters, porta-potties with hand washing stations. The showers had piping hot water and the bathroom even has a heater. There is even a small general store where you can get snacks, camping gear, non-alcoholic drinks, climbing chalk, and even eggs and sausages. Although the store has a lot of things I still recommend you hit up a grocery store before heading up. There is a small cafe that is open when there are a lot of campers.

Food:
If you get tired of cooking there is a small cafe at HP40 that only operates when there are a lot of people camping overnight. If you don't mind driving down a bit there are handful of restaurants in Ashville. I recommend the Mexican restaurant called Mi Casita in Ashville next to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and order the dinner special if you are hungry and don't mind eating unhealthy for a night.

HP40 Cafe

Wi-Fi:
The closest place to get internet access is the Subway. But test the internet before you buy something and settle in. Apparently the internet is often not working. I heard that the Jack in the Box has internet too but I heard that they will hassle you to keep buying food to continue using the internet. If you are taking a full on rest day I recommend you head over to Birmingham and hit up Lucy's Cafe.

Etc:

Laundry: There is a coin laundry facility located next to the subway .

Pets: The policy at the time of my visit was no dogs allowed in the campground and climbing areas.

Toubab Krewe - Music!

Toubab Krewe

My host Joe and Mindy introduced me to a new awesome band. They have a pretty unique sound. Check em out. <Myspace> <Amazon>

First Avenue Rocks - Climbing Gym - Birmingham Alabama

My host Joe wanted to go bouldering so I took him out to the First Avenue Rocks gym for a bouldering session.

The gym is pretty nice! One thing to remember is that this is a bouldering only gym. They have a small roped wall for kids but if you're tall enough to ride a roller coaster you will want to be bouldering in this gym.
They provide free wi-fi and they have a small lounge area with magazines.
They have a pro-shop that sells various climbing shoes and snacks. They even have tons of 5.10 shoes for demo! I got to try the Team 5.10 shoes and I gotta say, I'm a fan! If for some reason I don't love my brand new Dragons I might get myself some Team 5.10.
They also have a full workout area for cross fit training and a studio in the back of the gym for yoga. My host Joe's roommate Mindy even teaches yoga at the gym on Thursday and donates the profits to a non-profit she started! 

There are many things to like about the gym but probably the best thing is that people at the gym were awesome! Joe and Sarah was super friendly and was a blast to talk to. Joe made recommendations on climbs I should try when I get to Horse Pens 40.
The gym isn't the biggest but in the small space they pack a lot in. Joe and I had a great time bouldering. I wouldn't go to the gym if I you can climb outside but it's not a bad option if the weather is bad. If you are camping at Horse Pens 40 and it rains they will even give you a $5 gym deal for the place! Awesome!


View Larger Map

Moss Rock Preserve - Crag Beta

Location:
I think people will find this info pretty useful. My first trip out I got a bit lost.
The following map shows where you want to park to access the boulders.

View Larger Map
Do not enter the park next to the plaque, just follow the trail that leads up the hill parallel to the street. With a short walk you'll be in the park and you will see the rocks.

Guide Books:

By the time this is posted the new guide book for HP40, Moss Rock Preserve and Palisades Park should be released from Greener Grass Publishing [link] The book should cost $24.95 and is available online from the publisher and locally from the First Ave Rocks Gym in Birmingham [link] or local Mountain High Outfitters. The book was not available for purchase while I was at Moss Rock but I took a look at the advance copy of the book at the gym and it is definitely worth it if you are planning to visit HP40 too. If you really don't want to spend any money the Dr. Topo guide can be found online with some careful looking although I don't recommend the Dr. Topo guide as it is not very comprehensive.

Where To Stay:
There is no camping at Moss Rock Preserve. I was staying at a friend's place in Birmingham and making the short drive everyday I wanted to climb at Moss Rock.

Food:
I did all my eating in Birmingham. I recommend Dreamland if you are craving some BBQ. Golden Temple if you are craving healthy vegetarian or vegan cuisine. Lucy's Cafe is a good place to hit up for tasty sandwiches.

Wi-Fi:
There are plenty of places to get wi-fi in Birmingham but  my favorite cafe was Lucy's Cafe.

Moss Rock Preserve Bouldering! - Day 2

I didn't have too much planned for my last day at Moss Rock. My goal was just to tidy up the climbs I've been working on and maybe do some easy fun problems.

The Heart Problem V2

The first problem I did was called the Heart Problem. If you look carefully you can see that my right hand is in a heart shaped hold. It was fun and easy to find.

Scrutinizer V4 

After that short warm up I was ready for the Scrutinizer! Since I had the beta down and was well rested I got it in the first go! The climb is pretty straightforward except for the transition towards the end. Get a low right foot and do a left heel hook to make the transition.

Scrutinizer with the heel hook beta

V3

Doing the top out portion of a V4

A V4 climb that has been down graded to a V2 in the new guidebook...

There is a climb right next to the Scrutinizer that was a series of burly moves. I was initially told it was a V4 but apparently it has been down graded to a V2 in the new guidebook! If it is a V2 it is definitely the most burliest V2 ever with campusing moves.
That's one thing I'm realizing about south east bouldering, a lot of problems are being down graded in grade. Sandbaggery abound. Don't be too discouraged if you find a easy grade climb that you just can't seem to get.

Dreamland BBQ - Birmingham Alabama

 

You'll smell the food and see the smoke before you see the restaurant.

After the half day of climbing Stephanie and Amanda recommended that we go to Dreamland BBQ. Dreamland is considered to have one of the finest ribs in Birmingham. I know I've been eating a lot of BBQ recently but I decided one more couldn't hurt.

 

Amanda and Stephanie, the gracious tour guides to Birmingham!

When we were driving to the restaurant I saw a plum of smoke eve before I saw the restaurant but knew it had to be the place. When we sat down we were given plain white bread and barbecue sauce. Apparently this was a Dreamland tradition. I was told that when the place first opened up all you could get was the complimentary white bread and sauce and pork ribs. The menu has since expanded and now you can get a variety of items. <menu>

 

1/2 rack of ribs and Mac & Cheese

The bread with bbq sauce was delicious, especially if you drizzle on some Texas Pete hot sauce. Plain white bread never tasted so good :o) The ribs were pretty tasty. The meat was tender and sweet. The mac and cheese was also pretty darn good but I wish there was more of it! Maybe the bread is suppose to fill you up enough so you don't notice how small the sides are.

 

Mmmmmm~ Meat~~

 

 No Farting Sign!

So was it the best ribs I ever had? Definitely no but was it damn tasty? Hells yeah! I definitely recommend you check it out if you're hungry for some ribs in Birmingham.

View Larger Map

Moss Rock Preserve Bouldering! - Day 1

It was good to finally be back outside bouldering! The weather was nice and I was ready for a good day of climbing but there was one problem. I had no idea how to get there! But Stephanie and Amanda from couch surfer came to the rescue! They called while I was going in circles and they not only guided me to Moss Rock Preserve over the phone but was going to come out and show me around Birmingham. Thanks to them I was finally back outside bouldering!

V2

I had the Dr. Topo guide that but I found it to be not too helpful. Luckily I met a local climber that was able to point me to couple of fun climbs.

 

V3

One thing to note for bouldering in Moss Rock is that there are many climbs where obviously good holds are considered off for the problem. For the V3 problem I believe one of the holds on the right is off. This made it hard to go around by myself and say I really climb any of the established problems I found. This was a bit frustrating but also liberating. It allowed me to just jump on routes without really worrying about the grade of the climbs.

V5 Sit Start, I did just the last portion of the climb.

Easy Highball, Probably a V1

 V3?

 Towards the end of the day couple of guys showed me a fun traverse called the Scrutinizer V4. It was a fun climb so I ended up spending probably way too much time on it. I had the front portion dialed down and I could do the crux end move without a problem but I had a hard time linking it all together. I must have tried it more than 10 times! I eventually decided to call it a day but promised myself to get the climb done the next day after a bit of rest. All in all a good day.